


The Brotherhood of Dragons

by savvylikeapirate



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Angst and Humor, F/M, Family Feels, Fix-It, I'm Remaking the Whole Damn Thing, M/M, Raditz and his Ridiculous Hair, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-21
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2018-09-18 22:59:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9406703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/savvylikeapirate/pseuds/savvylikeapirate
Summary: “Watch your brother. Stick together. Become great Saiyan warriors.”Those were the last words Bardock and Gine had for their eldest son before sending him off in a pod with his baby brother. He lived by those words, even when it took him to the strangest places and people. Raditz would face the gods themselves for his little brother. He didn't quite count on the dragons.This is a re-telling of Dragon Ball, starting at the beginning.





	1. The Lost Boys

Raditz sniffled and rubbed at his eye with the heel of his hand. He was old enough to know that he was never going to see his parents again, but not yet old enough to mourn the home they were leaving behind. The pod was a little cramped with both him and Kakarott having to share. He was glad that his baby brother wasn’t being fussy right now. Raditz didn’t know if he could keep from crying if Kakarott started to. 

“Ra?” A chubby, sticky hand reached out to pat his arm, followed by a brown tail coated in baby-soft fur. 

“M’okay Kakarott,” he replied, pulling the toddler into a hug. Raditz wasn’t really okay. He wanted to scream and cry and howl because he was so scared. But he was a saiyan warrior and a big brother. Neither of those things could cry where anybody could see. 

“Mama?” Kakarott’s fluffy head tickled Raditz’ chin as he looked around. “Mama?”

Raditz bit his lip and screwed his eyes shut. He couldn’t cry. He couldn’t cry. Mama and Dad were gone. Really gone. They’d both cut a lock of hair and put it in a tiny box on a chain. The first thing every Saiyan learned was that hair was part of who you are. It said who you were and where you came from, and it remained the same shape for as long as you lived. Cutting off hair was cutting off a piece of you that would take years and years to grow back. Raditz’s parents gave them a piece of themselves to carry with them to wherever they were gonna go.

He had never been so scared in his life. 

A wave of energy rocked over the pod, making it wobble and shake with the two boys inside. Sound didn’t travel through space, but energy certainly did, and whatever that came from was powerful. Kakarott squeaked and giggled, thinking it was a fun bouncy ride. Raditz had the sinking feeling that whatever shook the pod was what Mama and Dad sent them away from in the first place. 

When the wave passed, Raditz repeated his parents’ instructions. “Keep calm. Buckle in.” He adjusted Kakarott to sit facing away from him on his lap and latched the harness over them both together. The baby whined and started chewing on the metal buckle. He didn’t like it on him. 

“Uh, what next? Hiber… hyper… hibber-nashun cycle?” Raditz’s brows pulled together. There was a button for that, but the pod was full of buttons. He didn’t have to set where they were going, because Dad did that part. He was pretty sure it was the blue button off to the side, so he stretched his tail out to poke it. A grayish mist started to hiss into the pod and Kakarott burbled sleepily in his lap. 

Raditz repeated the rest of the instructions, wanting to make sure he remembered them before he fell asleep. “Watch your brother. Stick together. Become great Saiyan warriors.” 

He drifted off, eyes fluttering shut. For a moment, it felt like Dad’s heavy hand smoothed his hair back to wish him sweet dreams. 

 

xxxxxxxx

 

Gohan sipped at his afternoon tea on the front porch of his home. Spring was blooming into proper summer. The soft flowers were fading into true greenery, and his nose had finally stopped itching from all of the pollen. Even with mild allergies, mountain solitude suited him. The way he had learned martial arts in his youth taught him the value of life and energy. Nothing went to waste in the universe. Everything came back around again at some point. There wasn’t a much better place to get back to truth and peace than Mt. Paozu. 

His still-sharp ears picked up a distant rumble. Odd. There weren’t any thunderclouds today, and airplanes hardly ever came to such a remote part of the world. 

The rumble got louder, making the dishes in his house rattle about. Louder still, and the beams of his home began to quake. A bright light streaked across the sky, going directly over his house and smashing into the ground in the forest beyond. A meteor?

Gohan ducked inside of his house and grabbed his power pole and his first aid pack. There was no telling if that thing hurt any animals when it hit. His slippered feet raced over the ground with uncanny speed, whooshing through the grass and nimbly dodging trees. He probably wasn’t as fast as his old master anymore, but he’d still give any young troublemaker a run for their money. 

The ground near where the meteor landed was freshly torn. Trees were upended and ripped apart by the impact, and the crater was still warm. There was an odd smell in the air. Gohan had expected a meteor to smell something like sulfur, and yet he could have sworn this was more like ozone. 

He slid his way down into the crater to get a closer look. “Power pole, extend,” he commanded, watching the end of it reach out to prod at the meteor. Rather than making a dull thud, the impact made a metallic sounding  _ clink.  _ The meteor was almost unnaturally round, now that he could make it out. The irregularities of shape came from debris and not from it. Part of it looked to be as smooth as glass. No, it  _ was _ glass. It was a window, and he could make out the shape of a face inside of it.

Gohan stumbled back, shocked. A creature from another world, landing on his mountain. Would it wish them harm? Could he fight it if it were hostile? Would he need to call the authorities?

The doors to the strange spacecraft hissed open, and the hatch lifted. A small, hairy creature with a tail crawled out and sniffed the air and then turned sharply towards him. 

By every god that ever lived, it was a child. The creature had the face of a little boy, no older than four years. He bared his long canines in Gohan’s direction and hissed, but then a loud cry rang out into the forest. The boy’s head snapped to the pod, then back at him. 

“Easy now,” Gohan murmured, setting his power pole down to raise his hands. “I won’t hurt you.” 

The boy shuffled sideways, standing between him and whatever continued to cry in the pod. Much to his surprise, he spoke, “A true warrior only needs hands to hurt.” His little voice carried a rasping weight to it and was strangely accented. Gohan decided to just be grateful that he was understood. 

“That’s true. But hands can also be used to help.” He gestured with his chin towards the spacecraft. “Is there someone who needs help in there?”

The boy’s teeth were bared again and he hissed, “We don’t need your help!”

“Waaaaaaaaah!”

His tail twitched in aggravation, and his eyes kept glancing back and forth between Gohan and what was in there. “I don’t know you!” he growled. “And I’ve gotta protect him!”

“Protect who?” Gohan asked, the very image of calm. 

“Kakarott!” he cried, breaking his image enough that a few stray tears leaked down his cheeks. “He’s all I’ve got and I’m not gonna let you hurt him!”

Gohan’s heart swelled with pity. What a poor little thing. There was no telling what drove him from his home, but he had to already have been hurting before they arrived. He couldn’t leave them there to fend for themselves. Oh well, it was a good thing that he liked children.

“What’s your name, lad?”

The boy sniffled and rubbed at his nose with his forearm. “Raditz, son of Bardock.”

“And who is the little one in there?” he asked, nodding back at the open spacecraft. “A friend of yours?”

“My little brother.” 

The crying had yet to cease, and was in fact growing louder by the minute. Raditz looked both tightly wound and defeated. This simply couldn’t continue.

“My name is Gohan,” he replied. “And my home isn’t far from here. The two of you could rest there? Maybe get something to eat?”

Raditz’s face turned hopeful, then immediately bashful as his stomach gurgled loudly. “‘m hungry.”

“And don’t you think Kakarott is as well?” 

That’s the best Gohan could figure anyway. It was usually either hungry or dirty that drove children that young to such tears. Raditz looked to be thinking it over, brows drawing together and hands nervously tangling in his mane of hair. 

“I’ll smell it if it’s poisoned,” he grumbled, “So don’t try it!”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.” 

The boy sneered and scrambled back to the tiny ship, scooping up a squirming shape swathed in red fabric into his arms. If Raditz’s hair was a mane, then Kakarott’s, Gohan decided, was a bird’s nest. Though he tried to adjust his hold, Raditz was just too small to properly grip his brother comfortably. His arms just kept scooping the baby up under his armpits and that would do no good for anyone.

“I can carry him if you like,” Gohan offered.

“No,” was the curt response. “I got him.”

Kakarott’s cries had quieted down to an unhappy whimpering that tore at Gohan’s heart strings. He could only spare one brother’s pride for the sake of the other’s discomfort so much. 

“We’ll get there faster if I take him. And you’ll be able to see my hands the whole time,” he offered, getting down on one knee and extending his arms.

Raditz thought about it, then slowly handed him over, nervous black eyes darting between Gohan’s face and that of his charge. Gohan settled the baby, or really almost a toddler, in his arms and got a good look at him for the first time. Though red with tears and distress, Kakarott’s face was made for smiles and soft with high apple cheeks. He and Raditz at the same nose and chin, the same almost awkwardly large ears. He glanced back at the elder brother, whose tail twitched behind him as he looked up at him with a shifting mix of distrust and hope. 

Gohan would later realize that, much like the changing of the seasons, destiny sliding into place would only be noticed in small moments and then happen all at once.


	2. Girls, Girls, Girls

Kakarott giggled as he ran down to the river, leaping through the trees with playful whoops. “Come on, Raditz!” he called, “I’m gonna beat you and not share any of my fish!”

He didn’t hear his brother reply and kept running, jumping off of stones and over the startled animals in his way. The river glimmered ahead of him and he leaped forward, but came crashing down. “OOF!”

“Gotcha brat!” Raditz yelled, pinning his little brother down with his larger bulk. He had gone through the worst of the Saiyan growth spurt about six months ago, and was mostly finished in the height department. The weight and muscle mass would come later, as might a few more inches. Kakarott, however, hadn’t grown a single inch in the past four years and wouldn’t yet for another three at least. 

“Get offa me!” Kakarott cried, wiggling and thrashing about. 

“Nope. You’re gonna have to mak-OW!”

Raditz reared back and shook his head, clearing the stinging in his nose from his brother’s punch. It worked as a distraction, and Kakarott monkeyed his way onto his brother’s back. He gave his ear a hard twist, and Raditz yelped.

“Squirrelly little shit!” He slammed his elbow back into his brother’s side, knocking him off, and tried to pin him down again. Kakarott rolled to kick dirt up into his face and stuck out his tongue. 

“You’re just mad that you can’t catch me as easy anymore! Being big isn’t worth it!” he taunted. 

“Oh yeah?” Raditz grinned and flopped bodily onto him, wrapping his thick arms around his torso so he couldn’t squirm out. “I’m soooo big! I’m like a boulder and I’m gonna squish you into Saiyan jelly!”

“Nooo!” He whined, futily kicking. “Saiyan jelly would taste gross! Like snakeskin and armpit hair!”

“How do you know what armpit hair tastes like?”

“Your head-hair gets in everything you cook and it’s so gross I figured that’s close enough.”

“Brat!” Raditz gripped Kakarott in a headlock and rubbed his knuckles hard over his scalp. “You take that back! My hair is awesome!”

“No it’s not! It’s stinky and huge just like you!”

“Shut your mouth!”

“Make me, you big ugly oozaru!” Kakarott retorted, finally slithering out and away. He took off towards the river again, cackling with glee. 

“Oh, I’m gonna get you!”

 

xxxxxxxx

 

“Ooooohoohoo~ I am going to get you,” Bulma sang as she drove down the abandoned road, watching the dot on her radar grow closer. “I’m gonna get you, little dragon ball. You’re going to be all mine.”

The two in her bag clinked together, jostled from the bumpy ride. One she found in an antique store in South City, the other in a drainage ditch near the highway. This one was just as stationary as the others, so she wasn’t worried about it being in the stomach of some giant beast. 

This one would make it three down, with four to go. A pleasant summer adventure that would end with her getting the perfect boyfriend that she’s always deserved. Or perhaps she’d take a lifetime’s supply of huge, flawless strawberries if she decided that the boyfriend thing was a waste of time. She was so young and pretty, after all. It would probably be a shame to find the perfect man now when there was still so much time for that.

Then there would be moments, like now, when she was driving along the road and hadn’t seen another human for days, when the loneliness started to creep in. In these moments the idea of having a nice person to smile at and hold her hand and keep her company seemed a much more worthy investment than fruit. 

Bulma glanced down and re-calibrated her Dragon Radar, bringing the range down to individual kilometers. She didn’t look up in time to see the two boys leaving the woods and wandering straight into her path.

“Oh my god!” She screeched, hitting her brakes hard and sliding through the dirt. Her car slammed into the taller one, and the bumper wrapped around him like she had hit a tree. 

“Ow! What the hell?” He yelled, rubbing at his knee and thigh. 

“Don’t you hurt my brother!” the smaller one cried, punching the hood and leaving a deep dent in the shape of his fist.

Bulma screamed and scrambled for her pistol, unlocking the safety and leaning out of her car door. She pointed it at the smaller one with a thunderous frown. “Quit hurting my car you little freak! I’ll shoot you, I swear to god I will!”

He looked up at her struck, then back at the bigger one. “Raditz?” he asked, “What is  _ that?” _

The big fluffy one seemed just as surprised and came around towards her. “I’m pretty sure that’s a girl, dummy. Though why she’s out here is beyond me.” He glanced down at her gun with a sneer. “That’s not gonna do any damage to me, missy. Your transport didn’t even leave a bruise.”

Not that she could see if it did or not. He was wearing a tunic and pants and the only extra skin she could see was on his arms.

His very big arms.

His very  _ nice _ big arms.

Well then.

She holstered her pistol and gave both of the boys her sweetest smile. “I think we got off on the wrong foot here, fellas. I didn’t mean to hit you, but you walked right in front of me.”

The elder one growled and grumbled and the smaller one reached for his hand and tugged on it. “Do you remember what Grandpa Gohan said about girls, Raditz? That if we ever met one we had to be on our best behavior. I know she’s funny looking, but he usually knew what he was talking about.”

He made a sour face and sighed deeply, heaving his  _ (oh so broad) _ shoulders. “Fine. You can come stay with us for a little while. Since we stood in the way of your … thingy.” He gestured vaguely towards her smoking car. 

“Thank you,” she replied primly. 

The boys grabbed a few enormous fish they had left by the side of the road and heaved them over their shoulders. Or in the smaller one’s case, dragged it over his shoulder. He smiled back at her and slowed down to walk beside her, letting the big one lead. 

“I’ve never met a girl before,” he said, grinning up at her. “Do you have a name?”

She nodded. “I’m Bulma. What about you?”

“Me? I’m Kakarott.”

Bulma snickered. “That’s a funny name. Like a vegetable.”

He frowned. “Well your name sounds like underwear! And Grandpa Gohan used to call me Goku too. Like the monkey king in his story book.”

“I like Goku better. And there’s nothing wrong with my name! It happens to be very elegant,” she huffed. “And what about Mr. Tall, Dark, and Grumpy over there?”

“That’s Raditz,” Goku said, beaming with pride. “He’s my big brother! And I’m gonna be just as tall as him someday soon, just you wait.”

Bulma giggled behind her hand. “You’ve got a long way to go before you get there, kiddo.” Honestly, he was barely as tall as her hips, including the hair. 

Raditz huffed in front of them. “You’re never going to be as tall as me, Kakarott. I’m going to be the big brother forever and you’re always going to be a squirt.”

Goku giggled. “You’re just worried that I’m gonna be stronger than you when I get big.”

“Not a chance in hell. You’ve got to work on that sloppy technique of yours before you can even come close.”

“Technique?” Bulma asked. “You’re fighters?”

Raditz gave her the blandest, flattest expression she was certain his face could make. “We’re Saiyans,” he said, as though stating something obvious.

“Is that supposed to mean something to me?” She planted her hands on her hips and tilted up her nose. He may be cute, but she wasn’t about to be patronized. 

He frowned deeply, and she could have sworn that the great fluffy mass of his hair rose up like an irritated cat. 

“Raaaadiiiitz!” Goku whined, “You can yell at her about Saiyan pride later. The fish is starting to stink.”

He huffed and led them over to the top of the hill, revealing a humble house and woodshed with a fire pit outside. Goku hefted his fish over towards his brother and grabbed Bulma’s wrist. 

“C’mon! I’ll show you inside!” he said, dragging her towards the house.

“Not so hard, kid!” His hand was like a little band of iron around her wrist, much more solid and unyielding than she would have expected.

“Here. You can sit down. Just don’t touch the stuff on the special pillow.”

“Special pill-”

In front of her, glowing dimly orange in the darkness, there it was.

“Holy shit, that’s a dragon ball.”

  
  



	3. Balls to the Wall

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for the delay! My life has been through a series of funky twists and turns, and this story was never meant to be abandoned. Hiatus perhaps, but that time has finally come to an end. 
> 
> I'd like to take this time to thank every single person who left kudos and comments, or even just read what I had so far. It meant the world to me, and it has been incredibly encouraging to know that there are people out there who actually like my work. 
> 
> This chapter is a bit shorter than the previous installments, but I hope to make up for it by giving you the newest one as soon as I can. 
> 
> Please enjoy, and feel free to reach out to me here or at my tumblr.

 

“That’s a dragon’s _what-now_?” 

 

Raditz ducked his head in through the doorway, hearing her exclamation. “Gramps said it was some sort of weird talisman. Unbreakable and with weird-ass energy.” 

 

He swaggered in, crossing his arms and smirking down at her. “You trying to tell me that his old treasure was actually a petrified monster nut or something?”

 

“It is not!” Goku exclaimed, punching his brother in the thigh. “You take that back!”

 

Raditz barely flinched, too busy snickering. “Pff, hey Kakarott. If this is the dragon’s ball, don’t you wonder about his di-?”   
  


“It’s not that kind of ball!” Bulma shouted, face flushing bright pink. “Why are all boys so gross? Ugh! Just- Just sit down and let me explain.” 

 

She reached into her bag and pulled out two more orange balls. The surface of them clinked like glass, but her analysis revealed them to be much stronger. They also emitted a unique, harmless radiation signal. The dragon radar, which was part of her Master’s in Physics thesis, was the only instrument in the world which could detect them. 

 

The stuffed shirts at the university would simply  _ have _ to give her a doctorate once she proved the existence of a new element. Or maybe she would tell them to shove it and not care anymore once she had her perfect boyfriend. The options were still open. 

 

As she revealed her own dragon balls, the one on the pillow began to glow and softly hum. Bulma had seen this before when she had found her second one, but the boys watched with wide eyes.

 

“These are dragon balls. See the stars in the middle? No two have the same number. The legends say that there’s seven all together.”   
  
Goku plopped onto his knees in front of her and leaned forward, seemingly sniffing the matching two she had laid out on the table. “What’s so special about them?” he asked. 

 

Bulma grinned and replied, “When you gather all seven of them together, a great dragon appears and can grant you any wish in the world!”

 

“Any?” Raditz murmured behind them, startling her. “Can it… can it bring back the dead?”

 

He suddenly looked young to Bulma’s eyes, longing and hopeful. She briefly wondered how old he was, how long he and Kakarott had been alone up here. 

 

“It could,” she answered, carefully finding her words. “But the legends say that even the dragon has limits. The person cannot have died a natural death and cannot have been gone for more than a year.”   
  
“These are pretty detailed legends,” Goku grumbled, reaching out and holding the four-star ball in his hands. “But I don’t think I wanna wish for anything. I like it here.”

 

“Speak for yourself,” Raditz growled, now sullen. “But I guess you’re going to say now that you want the dragon ball we have, right?”

 

Bulma fluttered her lashes at him and grinned. “That’s the plan. So are you going to be good boys and hand it over?”

 

He smiled sweetly, though the length of his canine teeth made it more threatening than alluring. “Nah.”

 

“And why  _ not _ ?” She growled, tightly holding her smile in place. 

 

“We don’t get anything out of just giving it to you,” he snorted. 

 

“That’s true!” Goku piped up. “Even grandpa said that there’s always balance. To get something, you have to give something. Like training for strength or food for energy.”

 

“So, girly, what is the ball worth to you?”

 

Bulma frowned, thinking of what these weird, backwoods boys would want that she could give. “Do you want to see my underwear?” she offered. 

 

“What? Why?” “Who cares about your butt?!” The brothers blurted. Part of her was offended that they didn’t want to see her frankly magnificent derriere, but another part was a little bit relieved that she wasn’t alone with freakishly strong perverts.

 

“Fine!” she huffed, waving that offer away. “Why don’t you come with me? I mean, I’ve already gone halfway around the world to find the three I have. It’ll be an adventure!” 

 

“Adventure?” Goku looked up at her, pulling the four-star closer to his chest. “Like in the hero stories?”

 

Good sweet gods, that kid was so cute. It almost balanced out the fact that he was rude and weird. 

 

“Exactly. And who knows what kind of danger I might get into trying to get the rest of them?” Bulma leaned towards Raditz, twirling a bit of blue hair over her fingers. “I’ll need the help of you big, strong boys to keep me safe.”

 

Raditz shifted uncomfortably and scooted away. “Do you think there will be enemies?” he asked. “People we can fight?”

 

“I’m sure there will be! Dragon balls have been used by bad people in the past, and I might not be the only person out there who still believes in the legends. There could be all sorts of strong, wicked people out there seeking them again.” 

 

Two pairs of jet-black eyes met each other, shining with excitement. Bulma mentally patted herself on the back for having read them so well. 

 

“Okay,” Raditz said, smirking toothily. “We’ll come with you.”

  
  
  



	4. Yertle the Turtle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to thank everyone for their continued patience and support of this fic. Every single comment and kudo keeps me going! This one is a little longer than the last and we're really starting to get rolling with the camaraderie and PLOT. Enjoy!

Bulma, Goku decided, was  _ loud.  _ Her machines that roared down the roads, faster than he could run, were loud. Her voice was loud. The bright, flashy colors of her hair and the things she wore were loud. 

 

And the thingy she was using to dry off Raditz’ hair was loud too. 

 

“Your hair is  _ crazy _ thick,” she grumbled over the sound of the hairdryer. “It’s a wonder you don’t mildew like a wet chinchilla.”

 

Raditz shrugged. Goku guessed that he’d be making a bored face, but he couldn’t tell underneath the curtain of hair that was flopped forward over him. He had so much hair that Bulma figured she’d have to do it in sections at a time. 

 

Goku didn’t care much for the noise of it when it was his turn, but the warm air sure felt nice. Judging by the content flicking of his brother’s tail, he thought so too. 

 

They had been on the road for almost a week. They’d follow the little dot on the dragon radar in Bulma’s car during the day, and sleep in her magic pop-up house at night. She said it wasn’t magic, but they were also chasing after a legendary dragon. It was totally magic. 

 

With all of the weird things about her, it kinda surprised Goku that she thought he and Raditz were so weird. 

 

“I mean, I’ve never really been around naked boys before or anything, but I’m like 95% sure that tails aren’t a common thing,” she said, shutting down the hairdryer and going through the massive black mane with a brush. “Humans don’t have those. Especially not like yours.”

 

Raditz shrugged again, the wall of hair puffing out as he sighed. “Saiyans all have tails like ours. The old man didn’t have one, so I don’t think you’re missing a standard thing.”

 

“You’re missing out!” Goku exclaimed, wiggling happily in the big, soft shirt Bulma lent him for sleeping. His tail curled behind him and waved in the air. “Tails are good for all sorts of things. Climbing, grabbing fruit, fishing, -”

 

“Getting stepped on.”

 

Goku frowned at his brother and held his tail close to his chest. “You’re a meanie.”

 

Bulma gathered all of Raditz’s hair into her hands and was pulling it into a big tail with stretchy bands. “You punch and kick each other all the time,” she said with a snort. “Can’t imagine stepping on your tail hurts worse than any of that.”

 

“It does too!” Goku leaned forward emphatically. “It hurts the worst! Even worse than getting a headbutt to the junk!”

 

Raditz squinted at him. “You never had a headbutt to the junk.”   
  


“Yeah, but you did. And I saw you cryyyyy~” he teased. 

 

“Little bastard!” 

 

Before Raditz could finish lunging after him, Bulma yanked sharply at his hair and threw her hairbrush at Goku’s forehead for good measure. “None of that!” she scolded. “You already broke my tv and my second-favorite couch with that rough-housing bullshit. If I didn’t see you take down a dinosaur and  _ eat it  _ earlier today, I’d just say you’re hyper little kids.”

 

Goku rubbed at where the brush hit him and grumbled, “Well you’re not a grown-up either!”

 

“I’m sixteen,” she said primly, sitting up straighter and now braiding her own hair for bed. “I’m the most mature out of everyone here, so I’m the de-facto grownup.”

 

Raditz’s face twisted and he made a noise that sounded like “I dunno.”

 

Bulma’s hand snatched forward and gave Raditz’s ear a good yank. “Wanna try that again?”

 

“Ouch! Fine, bossy!” he conceded, rubbing his now sore-ear. Goku would have giggled, but he’d had his ear pinched a few times already and it wasn’t really all that funny.

 

“So, fearless leader,” Raditz droned, “I thought you said that with you fancy radar thing it wouldn’t take long to find all the dragon balls.”

 

“Yeah, so?”

 

Goku flopped onto his back and stared at her upside-down from the side of the bed. “It’s taking foreeeeveerrrrr,” he whined. 

 

She groaned and rolled her eyes. “There’s one close by, okay? Near the coast. We’ll be able to find it by tomorrow, no sweat.” 

 

Raditz fixed her with a flat look. “You sure about that?”

 

“Damn right I am, fluffy,” she sassed back, flopping onto the bed. “Now we need to get some rest. No telling who might have the ball when we get to it.”

 

He snorted and climbed onto the bed, curling towards the wall. It had taken a few days of yelling and general grumpiness to get Bulma to concede that the bed was plenty big enough to share. Goku wasn’t sure what she was making a fuss about. It was warmer and safer sleeping next to somebody in any case. 

 

He clambered up and laid down in between the two teenagers, snuggling into Bulma’s back. Before she finished yawning “Goodnight” to them, he was already fast asleep.

 

The next morning found Goku sitting in the front seat of Bulma’s car and Raditz lounging in the whole back. There wasn’t a roof on this car, and everybody seemed to like it that way. The wind felt good and the boys could see and smell everything as they rolled by. 

 

Raditz leaned forward, propping his elbows in between the two front seats. “The air smells salty. That’s the ocean, right?”

 

Bulma smiled over at him. “That’s right. How’s the radar looking, navigator?”

 

“We’re getting close!” Goku replied, wiggling and pointing at the flashing dot on the green screen of the radar. 

 

“How clo-WOAH!” She slammed on the breaks and swerved on the road, just missing the biggest turtle that Goku had ever seen. “WATCH THE ROAD, JACKASS!” she yelled at it.

 

“S-s-sorry!” the turtle stuttered back, voice low and nasally. 

 

Raditz cocked his head at it. “You trying to get back to the beach, old timer? You’ve got a few more miles of crawling. Not the way you were goin’ either.” 

 

“Darn it!” The turtle slapped the ground with a flipper. “I’m awful with directions.” 

 

“Bulma,” Goku asked, “Couldn’t we take him along? I mean we’re going that way already.”

 

She sighed deeply. “Fffffine. If you two can get him in the car.”   
  


Three minutes or so and a careful bit of maneuvering later had Raditz sharing the back seat with Mr. Turtle. The smell of salty air was getting stronger, and Goku was squirming excitedly in his seat.    
  


“I’ve never seen the ocean before! Is it nice, Mr. Turtle?” 

 

He shrugged his leathery shoulders. “I can’t complain. My home is actually on an island way out to sea. The island itself is nice, but my roommate is a dirty old pervert.”

 

Goku tilted his head in confusion. “What’s a pervert?”   
  


“Someone who wants to see girls naked or close to it, but will never have one willingly be either in his presence,” Bulma answered primly. 

 

“Who wants to see girls naked?” Raditz asked. “It’s nothing special.”   
  


“And nobody wants to see boys naked!”

 

“No, Kakarott, we’re all just tired of seeing _ you  _ naked.”

 

Before Goku could launch into his complaints about how being naked  _ felt better, thank you _ , the road underneath them went from bumpy gravel to soft sand. They turned through a cluster of trees and there it was.

 

“Wooooooow.” He’d never seen so much water before. And it was so blue! And wavy! Goku was so distracted by the newness of it all, that he almost didn’t notice the radar beeping frantically in his lap. 

 

Bulma snatched it away from him and adjusted some buttons. “It says we should be right on top of it. But where-?”

 

“Turtle, you old leather handbag, what the hell have you been up to?” a crotchety old voice shouted from behind them. 

 

All four people in the car turned in their seats to see a thin, short man with a beard in a flower-printed shirt. He hobbled through the sand with a cane topped with a familiar-looking orange orb. 

 

“Hi Roshi,” Turtle replied. “I got lost again.”

 

“Useless reptile. Old as you are, I’d hoped you’d know which way it is to the ocean by noooooww…” he trailed off, glasses sliding down his beaky nose. 

 

Bulma had gotten out of the car and was bending over to take off her sandals. Roshi - or whatever- was staring at her butt. Suddenly something became clear. 

 

“So that’s a pervert!” Goku shouted, pointing at the old man. 

 

He flustered as Bulma jolted back up, scowling at him. “N-now, that’s a very rude thing to say, little boy!” 

 

“Would you prefer I say it, old timer?” Raditz leaped smoothly out of the car and stood tall, crossing his arms and looking very big. “You’re a pervert. And you’ve got something we want.”

 

Roshi didn’t really look all that impressed, but he was also too busy watching Bulma to pay attention to Raditz being scary. “And what would that be?”

 

Bulma pointed at his walking stick. “That trinket you have on there. It’s really not worth much to you, is it?” she asked, batting her lashes. 

 

Goku thought she may have gotten sand in her eye or something.

 

“Well, it’s not worth so little that I’ll let it go for nothing,” Roshi wheedled. “I’ll need a little tit for tat. Butt works too if you don’t wanna do tit though, heheheheh.” 

 

She squeaked and her face turned bright pink and pinched. Goku suddenly realized that, while he might not know what all he was talking about, Roshi had said something that made his friend upset.

 

“You take that back!” He shouted, leaping out of the car and taking a stance in front of her. “Don’t talk to Bulma that way!”

 

“You sure you want to pick a fight with me, kiddo?” Roshi asked with a quiet chuckle. “I’m stronger than I look. Besides, I’m not asking her for much.” 

 

Raditz stepped up next to him and he took a matching stance of his own. “Pride is beyond cost. Give us the ball and we’ll forget that you insulted her.”

 

Turtle, who somehow had found his own way out of the car, smacked Roshi’s behind with a flipper. “They did me a favor! Quit being a weirdo for one minute and be nice to the kids.”

 

“Fine, fine. Spoilsport,” Roshi grumbled, popping the dragonball off the stick and tossing it at Raditz. “Thanks for not letting him dry out on the side of the road.”

 

“Don’t mention it,” Bulma replied flippantly, tossing her ponytail over her shoulder. “Let’s go, boys.” 

 

Goku’s playful mood had been pretty squashed and he was starting to get hungry again, so he climbed back into the car without complaint. Raditz clambered in behind them, and off they went. 

 

“Where’s the next ball, navigator?” Bulma asked, watching Goku fiddle with the radar. 

 

“Uhh, looks like it’s off to the west. A ways off.” 

“Thank you.” She was quiet for a moment and then placed her hand on top of his, squeezing.  _ “Thank you.” _

 

Goku may have missed a lot, but he knew that wasn’t just for giving the directions. He smiled wide back at her. “You’re welcome.” 

 

Raditz’ big hand reached forward and warmly patted her shoulder. “Eyes on the road, Blue. We’ve got a long way to go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I never cared for the canon first-encounter between Bulma and Master Roshi. So that's different now~ Please feel free to leave questions or comments, or reach out to me on tumblr!


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